Currently it is possible to DND a directory to the desktop and create either a copy or a symlink or move completely the directory, by pressing the CTRL/Shift keys.

I had like to propose a change when DND a directory as a symlink. A symlink is not ideal, when you open the directory it will open at ~/.local/desktop/the-symlink and creates thumbnails for “this” particular directory. If you then browse from a Nautilus browser to ~/the-real-directory it will then re-generate the thumbnails for this ”other” directory.

So instead of creating symlinks for directories on the desktop, one can generate .desktop files instead.

Here is a snippet:

#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Exec=xdg-open file:///home/mike/Downloads
Name=Downloads
Icon=gtk-directory

I tried creating a desktop icon with Type=Directory without success, it looks like those don't work at all and I'm not exactly sure where and how they are useful. Just wanted to mention them.